• Swiss attorney general investigating whether Platini received ‘disloyal payment’
• Blatter’s lawyers say he will not stand down as Fifa president
The Fifa and Uefa presidents,Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, have issued nearly simultaneous statements denying any wrongdoing relating to the £1.35m paid to Platini in February 2011, and for which Blatter is subject to a Swiss criminal investigation.
Lawyers for Blatter said he will remain as Fifa president despite the investigation by the Swiss attorney general,Michael Lauber, into a suspicion that the money paid to Platini was a “disloyal payment”. Both men stated that it related to work Platini did at Fifa as Blatter’s adviser – which finished nine years earlier, and in 2002. Blatter and Platini are also subject to investigation over the same payment by Fifa’s ethics committee,meaning both could imminently be suspended, which would scupper Platini’s candidacy to be elected Fifa president when Blatter steps down in February.
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Source: theguardian.com